A refrigerator is an apparatus for keeping food refrigerated.
The inside of a refrigerator is cooled by cold air that is continually being supplied. The cold air is continually generated by heat exchanging action of a refrigerant during a refrigerating cycle such as a compression-condensation-expansion-evaporation cycle. Cold air supplied into the refrigerator is evenly transferred by convection so that food and drink in the refrigerator can be stored at a desired temperature.
In general, the body of refrigerator has a cuboidal shape of which the front is open. A refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment may be provided in the body. Further, the front of the body can be equipped with a door for the refrigerator compartment and a door for the freezer compartment to cover the openings. The storage space inside the refrigerator can include a number of drawers and racks, storage boxes, and so on to keep various foods and drinks in optimal condition inside the refrigerator.
A top freezer type of refrigerator includes a freezer compartment positioned at the top and a refrigerator compartment positioned at the bottom. In recent times, a bottom freezer type of refrigerator that includes a freezer compartment positioned at the bottom has been introduced. In the case of a bottom freezer type of refrigerator, since the refrigerator compartment, which is used often, is positioned at the top, and the freezer compartment, which is used less often, is positioned at the bottom, there is an advantage because a user may conveniently use the refrigerator compartment. However, since the freezer compartment of a bottom freezer type of refrigerator is positioned at the bottom, the user has to bend his/her body and open the door of the freezer compartment to take out ice, and this may not be comfortable to the user.
To solve this problem, in recent times, a refrigerator that has an ice dispenser in the door of the refrigerator compartment positioned at the top of a bottom freezer type of refrigerator has been introduced. In this case, an ice maker may be equipped in the door of the refrigerator compartment or inside the refrigerator compartment.
The ice maker may include an ice making assembly having an ice tray for making ice, an ice bucket for storing the ice, and a transfer assembly for transferring the ice stored in the bucket to the dispenser. The ice made in the ice making assembly is dropped to the ice bucket positioned at the bottom of the ice tray and then may pile up in the ice bucket.
Furthermore, cold air used to make ice in a cooling space of the ice maker is supplied through a discharge duct by an air blower. Ice-making speed is enhanced if cold air is smoothly ventilated in the cooling space.
However, according to the prior art, the ice bucket has the shape of a simple box. If an ice bucket having that shape is covered by the case of the ice maker, the flow of cold air may be obstructed so that the ice maker is not able to obtain a satisfactory ice-making speed.
Further, in an environment where the internal temperature of the cooling space may increase due to frequent opening and closing of the door of the refrigerator compartment or because hot and humid outside air enters the refrigerator, if cold air is not smoothly ventilated, then ice may clump together (e.g., individual ice cubes may stick to each other).